The Girl with No Name Ch. 18

It seemed that, since the Destroyer's plans to obliterate the Duchy and annihilate its people had been thwarted, the Destroyer instead decided to pay a visit to the Kingdom of the Moon. The Grand Duke's scouts brought back the welcome news of a civil war being waged between two cousins whose forces were evenly matched. The rival heirs had no chance to worry about Danubia because they were too busy fighting each other.

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Today, there is very little evidence the Kingdom of the Moon ever existed at all. The country was completely destroyed over the ensuing decade by a bloody stalemate between the Lord of the Red Moon and the Lord of the Blue Moon. In 1764 the Ottoman Empire's army re-occupied the devastated region and the Duchy's once-formidable enemy became nothing more than a footnote in history.

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Note: The Grand Duke's two victories in Hórkustk Ris, combined with the raid on Sumy Ris and follow-up campaign that wiped out the Red Moon garrisons stationed throughout southwestern Danubia, is considered one of the greatest military upsets in history. No one could have expected that an ill-equipped army of 9,000 fighting men would annihilate over 40,000 professional combatants who were considered among the best soldiers in Europe during the mid-1700s. As much as popular Danubian historians like to credit the brilliance of the Grand Duke, and as much as the Danubian Church would like to claim it was due to Divine Intervention, the reality was that over-confidence, lack of accurate intelligence reporting, and two critical decisions by two different Red Moon Army commanders were what led to the Duchy's victory in the 1754 Hórkustk Ris campaign.

The Danubian defeat of the Army of the Red Moon had very important implications for the history of south-eastern Europe. In the decades leading up to 1754, the Kingdom of the Moon had established itself as a powerful and respected state through its superb military training and discipline, which created one of the most versatile, mobile, and feared fighting forces on the continent. There was general consensus among European leaders that the Kingdom of the Moon would continue to expand into Ottoman territory. Many contemporary writers expressed hope that the Kingdom of the Moon might even become strong enough to threaten the Turks' hold on Constantinople.

After the summer of 1754, conditions in the Kingdom of the Moon changed dramatically. The Lord of the Red Moon had suffered much more than a simple defeat: he had lost half of his entire army. His cousin immediately challenged him for the throne, the aristocracy split into warring factions, and the country endured a civil war from 1755 to 1764 during which neither Lord was able to establish superiority. Finally, some of the local barons asked the Ottoman Sultan to re-establish order, with the result that Turkey invaded and re-annexed the territory in 1764.

Although no treaty was ever signed, the Grand Duke of Danubia and the Ottoman Sultan maintained an informal agreement to leave each other's territories alone. The Sultan was under the impression that the Grand Duke's army was much stronger than it really was, without knowing the details of the fighting over Hórkustk Ris. As part of the informal agreement, the Danubian settlers who had set up residence in strips of former Danubian territory immediately to the south of the recognized border were allowed to stay by the Ottomans, as a buffer between the two countries. (The status of the border territories was not formally resolved until the early 21st Century, when the Treaty of Sumy Ris granted the majority of the disputed settlements to the Duchy, in exchange for abandoning all other territorial claims.)

News of the sudden and devastating defeat of the Lord of the Red Moon's army by, of all people, the Grand Duke of Danubia, shocked and dismayed leaders and political writers throughout western Europe. European sympathy clearly sided with the Lord of the Red Moon in his effort to annex the Duchy. The Kingdom of the Moon enjoyed good relations with Russia and Austria, and the hope was that the three countries would form a common and continuous front against the Ottoman Empire. Had that hope become reality, Turkish control of the entire Balkan Peninsula would have been threatened.

Foreign historians during the nineteenth century referred to the destruction of the Kingdom of the Moon and the respite it provided the Ottoman Empire as "Europe's lost opportunity". After 1754 the idea of a common European front against Turkey became considerably less practical, because the Danubian Grand Duke had no incentive to enter into an alliance with either Russia or Austria. Later events, such as the partitioning of Poland during the second half of his reign, validated his aloof attitude concerning involvement in European politics and the Duchy's diplomatic isolation.

Many historians, myself included, have indulged in counter-factual "what if" speculation concerning events in the Balkan Peninsula between 1754 and 1914. What would have happened had the Grand Duke's army been defeated and Danubia annexed by the Kingdom of the Moon? I am convinced the Kingdom of the Moon's aristocracy would have remained unified, because the Lord of the Blue Moon would not have been in a position to challenge his cousin for the throne, having neither the troops nor adequate support from dissident lords. The civil war that destroyed the Kingdom would not have taken place, and the Ottoman Empire would not have had the opportunity re-annex the region in 1764.

Following a victory in Danubia, the Lord of the Red Moon would have turned his attention to building up the alliance with Austria and Russia, as well as with Serb and Greek rebels, with the likely result of a joint military assault on the Ottomans. Given the military situation at the time, most Daunibian historians believe it is very likely Ottoman forces would have been routed and forced to retreat from some or all of their European holdings in the late eighteen century. (Counter-factual speculation aside, the Ottomans were not forced out of the Balkan region until over a century later, a process that started in the 1870s and culminated shortly before the First World War.)

The events surrounding "Europe's lost opportunity" and Danubia's subsequent neutrality towards the Ottoman Empire during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries explains much of the underlying hostility other Europeans have held towards the Duchy. However, that hostility is in no way justified. The Grand Duke did what was necessary to secure the future of his country and protect his people. The vicious treatment of captured civilians by both the Lord of the Red Moon and his rival the Lord of the Blue Moon during the civil war clearly demonstrated what the Danubians could have expected had the Grand Duke been defeated. The destruction of the Kingdom of the Moon and "Europe's lost opportunity" cannot be blamed on the Duchy. As a nation, the only thing we were doing was fighting for our own survival.

- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -